We Build and Then We Break
by kakurosama
Summary: After her father moves the headquarters of his corporation to Japan, Lumiere is sent to Ouran Academy for the few remaining months before graduation where the Host Club wreaks havoc in her life. OCx?
1. Transferred

This is my first Ouran fanfic. After watching the anime and reading what's been published of the manga I couldn't resist writing something.

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We Build Then We Break

Ch1 Transferred

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A few minutes after the bell rang, starting the first class of the day, a girl walked into third year class A at Ouran Academy. She was a tall girl, standing at five foot seven inches, towering over most of the native Japanese girls, with long slender limbs. Her long blond hair was clamped messily behind her head and her pale skin was littered with freckles. Scanning quickly over the class with her gold hued eyes, a light blush flushed over her features, noticing that most of the students were staring at her due to her late entrance. She quickly handed the teacher a note and they exchanged a few words before the teacher addressed the class, "This is Lumiere LaVie and she will be joining us for the remainder of the year." The girl then gave a quick bow before hurrying to the closest available seat and took out a journal and pen from her bag to take notes.

Since there were only a few months left of school before graduation she had opted out of wasting her money on the expensive uniform, receiving a waiver as long as she dressed nicely. So today she had dressed in black slacks and a crisp white shirt with a tie. She preferred men's clothing over women's, but would still wear dresses from time to time. She was a oddly thing, wirey creature, with an over active metabolism, and had a boxy frame with small breasts and only slightly curved hips. So men's clothing did nothing to extenuate her femininity, but she was still obviously female.

Her classes and lunch were relatively uneventful the entire day. She had engrossed herself with taking notes during instruction and ate her lunch alone in the school garden, enjoying the sunny day. However, things became a little more interesting after school when she decided to explore Ouran's campus.

'Great idea Lumiere, lets explore the school…and get lost,' Lumiere thought irritated as she wondered through the schools halls. "I should have just gone home," she muttered to herself, then seeing a sign over a pair of large double doors labeled Music Room 3, she perked up thinking that someone might be in the room that could give her directions. When she reached it she heard the promising sound of muffled voices and slowly opened the door to find a group of seven teens gathered around a couch, talking around themselves. She recognized two of them from class, but couldn't recall their names.

Since they did not notice her, she stepped into the door way, "um excuse me?"

At the sound of her voice they all turned to look at her, the tall blond one seaming to float over to her, taking her hands in his, "Oh Princess, my lovely flower, I'm afraid the host club has already closed for the day, but we would love to be graced with your beauty tomorrow."

Lumiere stared at him like he had two heads and snatched her hands away thinking, 'what's wrong with this guy?' but saying, "host club?...I only wanted directions," instead. 'What's a host club anyway,' she wondered before her hands were once more seized by the odd blond in front of her, "I would gladly guide you across the universe my Princess!"

Once again she stared at him like he was insane and pulled her hands away, taking a step back and raising her hands in front of her nervously, "uh…no that's okay. I think I'll just figure out how to get out of her on my own." She then felt a tug on her sleeve and looked down to find a small child with large brown eyes and blond hair who was holding a pink bunny in his free hand. If she remembered correctly he was in her class, as well as the tallest of the seven who shadowed his small counterpart.

"Lumi-chan we never got a chance to introduce ourselves in class! I'm Mitsukuni Haninozuka and that is my cousin and that's my cousin Takashi Morinozuka, but people call us Hunny and Mori," he said with a large grin before turning to the others and continuing, "This is Lumiere LaVie! She joined our class today!" Lumiere gave an unsure nod and wave before Hunny took the liberty to introduce the rest of the group, "the twins are Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, that's our newest member Haruhi Fujioka, and the one with the glasses is Kyoya Ootori, our vice president, and…" He was interrupted by the other bland boy, who gently lifted her chin, "and I am the King, Tamaki Suoh, my Princess."

She swatted Tamaki's hand away with a thoroughly disturbed expression, "don't do that! Do you not have any concept of personal space? And stop calling me princess." Her face was slightly flushed from his unwarranted affection and her expression was contorted into a priceless mixture of several emotions. Lumiere did not like being touched by others, especially those she did not know. Naturaly, is also made her uncomfortable when strangers invaded her personal space. At her rejection, Tamaki shuffled away to sulk in his 'corner of woe', not used to girls having such a reaction to his usual charms.

"Ah, so you're the new American transfer student. It's kind of odd that you are joining us so near to your graduation…but at any rate, welcome to Ouran Acadamy," Kyoya said pushing up his glasses and shifting his note book under his arm.

Lumiere rubbed the back of her neck explaining, "well yeah, but you can't really help but move schools when daddy suddenly decides to move the headcounters of his corporation to Japan."

Kyoya gave a knowing smirk that was slightly unnerving, while typing something into the laptop on the table next to him, "oh? Your file says you were tutored privately in America, so it's not really moving schools."

This received a glare from the blond girl, "why does it matter?" She then growled, a bit irritated by the group and from getting lost in the first place, "look, I just came into the room to find someone who could show me the way out of this damn building, but you're just going to play games with me, I'll find my own way out."

Just as she reached the door Hunny shouted, "Wait Lumi-chan! Takashi and I can show you the way out. We're about to leave anyway so it's not a problem, right Takashi?" The tiny teen looked up to his tall cousin who replied with a nod and an "Aa." Hunny then grabbed her arm and pulled her out the door energetically, Mori following close behind. He chided happily to Lumiere all the way out of the school and to its gates. When he finally let go of her arm, Lumiere gave a polite bow saying, "thank you both so much."

"It's no problem Lumi-chan, right Takashi?" Hunny replied once again looking to his cousin for conformation, who once again merely nodded with an "Aa," standing like a statue with his bag held over his shoulder and a blank expression.

She raised an eyebrow at the tall host's demeanor wondering if he was always so emotionless, before shaking it off and half turning away from them with a wave, "Well, I suppose I'll see you in class." She then hurried to a motorcycle, which was ironically parked next to a bike rack, giving another wave after she had climbed on and pulled her helmet over her head.

Hunny jumped up and down excitedly as she pulled away, waving franticly while shouting, "bye Lumi-chan!" Gazing in the direction she sped off in he then commented, "Lumi-chan sure is pretty, isn't she Takashi? And it's so cool that she has a motorcycle!" Mori promptly patted his short counterpart on the head before lifting him onto his shoulders and starting on their way home.


	2. Crash

Warning: Lumiere has an Angsty-Sue moment

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We Build Then We Break

Ch2 Crash

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The next two weeks were uneventful as Lumiere stayed focused on the school work and ate lunch alone in the school's garden when Hunny didn't drag her to join the host club boys. Now it was the last day of school before the weekend and she was to study with Hunny and Mori the next day, but they disappeared before she had a chance to ask them where and when they wanted to meet. Since she needed to go to the library anyway she decided to ask them after the host club was closed.

When she reached Music Room 3 there were still a few customers remaining, but she figured it would not hurt anything to approach the odd pair of cousins anyway. "Um…hi," she said awkwardly bedside their table interrupting one of Hunny's cheerful rants to the two remaining girls about cake or something…only to be tackled by the boy-Lolita. "Lumi-chan! You came to visit us!" and then his cheerful smile fell into a pout as he continued, "but the club is almost over."

The blond girl rubbed the back of her neck, "well actually I just needed to ask about our plans for tomorrow. We never decided where and when we are going to meet to study."

Hunny then burst into tears sobbing out, "I can't go!"

"Oh…well that's okay, I'll ju…" but before she could finish her petite classmate suddenly brightened and interrupted her. "I'm sure Takashi can still help you though! Right Takashi?" Hunny asked vaulting himself onto Mori's shoulders, who gave a hesitant nod after glancing at the nervous transfer student.

"Okay, well do you have any preference where we meet?" she asked only to receive a silent no. "um…I guess you can come to my place then," she suggested pulling out a piece of paper from her bag and scribbling down an address. "Just as a warning, it's kind of small," she said as he blankly took the address from her. It kind of unnerved her how stoic he was and she wondered how they were supposed to study if he never spoke more than two words at a time.

"Okay then, I'll see you tomorrow then," she said after a short awkward silence, but as she took a step back to leave she tripped over one of the guest's foot, pulling the table over and knocking over Haruhi (who was walking behind her with a tray full of tea cups and pots) on her way down. Cake and broken porcelain flew everywhere, covering Lumiere, Haruhi, one of the guests, the floor, and on of the expensive couches.

Mori, being the only one who wasn't staring in shock (or in the twins' case, laughing their lungs out), was the first to move into action, pulling both fallen girls to their feet. Lumiere's complexion turned a shade similar to that of a tomato, gasping "I'm so sorry!" before dropping back to her knees to pick up the pieces of broken china. After Haruhi beat off an overly concerned Tamaki, she and Mori joined the transfer student, cleaning up the broken tea sets and cake while Kyoya tended to the customers and busily typed on his computer.

It took a good ten minutes for them to get the mess cleaned, and by the time they were done, all the guests were gone. "I'm so sorry for the mess!" Lumiere nervously chirped, "and thank you for helping me clean it Fujioka-san and Morinozuka-san." Mori just gave his usual "Aa" and Haruhi mumbled something under her breath about knowing how she felt.

Before she had the chance to ask Haruhi what she meant, Kyoya handed her a slip of paper that read BILL. "That is what you owe us for the tea sets, two new uniforms, a new couch, and to hire a cleaner to get the stains out of the carpet," he explained at her confused look.

Lumiere's lips formed an O with acceptance, until her eyes found the total. The color drained from her face and she felt like she might have a heart attack. Why did the club's things have to be so expensive? She bit her lip as she thought of what to do. There was no way her father would just give her that much money. Although she was from a wealthy family, her father kept her on a tight budget. She reasoned that she could try to pick up an after school job, but her father would cut her off completely if he found out. Since there was little chance of him not discovering her, she had few options. "Um…Could I possibly pay you back in installments?" she asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck out of nervous habit.

Kyoya raised an eyebrow curiously, "with your family's wealth you should be able to just right me a check here. Why would you need to pay portions at of it at a time? (After all, I'll charge you interest.)"

The tall girl gave an anxious laugh, "well you see, my father and I aren't on the best of terms at the moment. Well actually we never have been on good terms. But anyway, he keeps me on a fairly tight budget, but if I cut back in a few areas and add in the extra spending money he does allow me, I should be able to pay you back before I graduate in a few months."

Before Kyoya could reply, Tamaki launched himself at Lumiere, "you poor thing, forced to live without the praise of your father and like a commoner in addition!" Haruhi became visible annoyed at the commoner comment but said nothing as the King continued, "We'll mend your relationship with your father. Mama, we can't take what little money she has! How will she eat!" He then pulled himself away from the transfer student and began to beg Kyoya.

"Um…it's really not that big of a deal, it's not like I'd be living in poverty or anything. It would just bring me down from the upper crest of the middle class to the lower one," Lumiere stated flatly, slightly disturbed that Tamaki had called Kyoya "Mama."

Turning back to the blond girl, Tamaki exclaimed, "You're so brave Princess! But as the gentleman I am, I can not allow you to live on the streets begging for scraps like a stray cat!"

"Did you not listen to anything I just said?"

"Lumi-sempai will have to work for us and pay off her debt, right Mama! And maybe Haruhi will start acting more feminine!" the overly dramatic club president shouted. The twins jumped at him after his last comment.

"More feminine?" asked one.

"Why would we want to make Haruhi more feminine?" continued the other.

"He's obviously a masculine guy," the chorused with their arms raised in a shrug.

"Um…I already know Haruhi is a girl. It's really not that hard to figure out," Lumiere commented causing the twins and their King to stare at her.

Kyoya then cleared his throat to capture the attention of the club members before calmly declaring, "We'll just have to make sure she keeps Haruhi's secret… but I'm not sure adding another female to the group wouldn't hurt our chemistry. Besides, our clients may not like her presence."

As if that was her cue, Renge popped up out of nowhere and started on one of her rants, "actually, an addition of an obvious female member to the group could enhance the clients' experience. If they feel threatened by her it will create competition to capture the attention of the hosts, driving profits to a record high!"

Tamaki, who had been pouting at the vice president's last comment, suddenly recovered, once again dramatically exclaiming, "so it's settled! Lumiere will be our tea and snack server as well as run errands for us!" He then pointed at her, "which brings us to another matter at hand; Operation Mend Lumiere's and Her Father's Relationship!"

"Wait, I never agreed to this!" Lumiere shouted, to which Haruhi replied that she really had no choice in the matter.

"Kaoru, Hikaru you'll infiltrate the LaVie estate and learn what you can from the inside! Kyoya look up anything you can find on the LaVie family," Tamaki began ordering the club members into action.

"Now wait a minute," Lumiere yelled, her temper starting to get the better of her. "I'll work for you, but keep your nose out of my business! Besides you can't mend something that was never there to be broken in the first place," she growled before storming out of the room.


	3. An Attempt to Study

Finally updated, sorry for the wait. I meant to get this up earlier this week but work and school set me back.

Thank you to those who have favorited and added alerts.

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We Build Then We Break

Ch3 An Attempt to Study

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Lumiere was cooking lunch when she heard a knock on the door of her apartment. "Coming," she shouted, removing a pan of sautéed vegetables from the fire, and quickly striding over the 14 feet to her front door. "Ah, Morinozuka-san," she said with an almost surprised tone. She moved aside, opening the door so he could come in. "I was just making lunch. Are you Hungry?" she asked.

He ducked through the door way and slipped off his shoes giving his usual reply, "Aa."

Closing the door behind him and crossing back over the short distance to the kitchen where she retrieved two plates from the cabinet, dishing out the baked fish, rice, and vegetables she had prepared. To be honest, she had not expected Mori to show up after the previous day's events, but she had made enough food for three just incase.

Mori was already seated at the kitchen table when she turned around with both plates in hand, so she pushed one across the table to him. He ate quickly, shoveling the food into his mouth, cleaning his plate before Lumiere was even half way finished with her own. "May I have some more?" he asked, pushing his plate forward.

Lumiere stared at the empty plate, blinking a few times before taking it, "sure." She piled what was left of the food she had cooked onto the dish before handing it back to him. "I'm surprised my cooking hasn't poisoned you. I mean I figure you're used to fancy meals prepared by professional chefs. (I know it was a bit of a shock to get used to when I moved out on my own)," she commented with a curious look.

He gave a small but genuine smile saying, "it's good," before starting on his second helping.

A light blush tinted her cheeks and she stuttered, "Th…thank you," before busing herself with washing her plate off in the sink. "I knew that Haninozuka-san is the math wiz of our class, but I was wondering if you could help my with my calculus homework before we study for our history test," she asked glancing at him over her shoulder while she scrubbed her plate.

"Aa," he said simply with a nod between bites of food.

"Thanks," she said, "ah, the tea!" She pulled two cups from the cabinet and poured tea into them, placing one cup in front of her seat and handing Mori the other in exchange for his now empty plate. She placed it in the sick before retrieving her bag from her room so they could start on their school work.

Mori quietly observed Lumiere work on her homework, correcting her and helping her every once in a while, but not offering any form of conversation. For once his silence was relaxing instead of worrying to her. It was actually kind of nice to be around someone that did not speak needlessly, but it may have just been because she was busy. After a couple of hours, Lumiere stretched her arms above her head with her fingers interlacing, and cheered, "Finished!" She had not expected to spend so much time on her math, but was glad she had completed it.

"Aa," Mori said with a small smile before looking at his watch, "hn, I'm going to be late for practice."

Lumiere's cheerful smile fell into a slight frown. "I'm sorry," she said slumping over the table sheepishly with her chin resting on her crossed arms so she could still see her robotic classmate, "you spent the whole time helping me with my math and we did not study at all."

He shrugged then, after a few moments of awkward silence, he scribbled his address on a piece of paper and pushed it across the table, "you can come over for dinner and then we can study."

"Oh! I wouldn't want to be a bother," she said, lifting her head up to rest in the palm of her hand.

He gave her a reassuring pat on the head and shook his own head, "I will see you around 6:00." He then stood up and made his way to the door.

"O…okay," she replied walking around to the other side of the table, "I'll see you then." Mori gave another silent nod and let himself out.

'What an odd guy," Lumiere thought as she cleared the empty tea cups from the table and began to wash them and Mori's plate, 'he has such an intimidating presence, in yet he's really just a nice guy.' Mori perplexed her, he hardly ever spoke; despite his seaming lack of interest in girls, he was in the Host Club; he was also in the Kendo Club so she knew he was strong, his tall stature also adding to his intimidating appearance; and his emotions seamed flat as a board. In yet, he kind of reminded her of…a teddy bear?

At 6:00PM Lumiere found herself at the gates of the Morinozuka estate trying to convince the guards that Mori was expecting her and she was not a random stalker. She didn't really blame them though. She was sure random girls popped up at all the Host boy's homes from time to time. It probably also did not help that she looked vaguely like a member of the Yakuza, dressed in a black t-shirt with blue jeans, combat boots and a leather jacket and arrived perched on a motorcycle. One of the house staff members finally came and confirmed that she was expected and let her in. So, giving a sigh of relief, she wheeled her bike through the gates until she found a proper place to park it before approaching the house hold staff member that was waiting for her.

"Ah, you must be Lumiere LaVie-san. Sorry for the trouble outside, Takashi-san doesn't normally have friends over besides Mitsukuni-san," she said with an excited tone. "He's still in the dojo but he should be finished soon. If you follow that path you should be able to meet him on his way back to the house," she stretched her arm out directing the blond to the path, not really giving her an option to wait where she was. As Lumiere stumbled onto the path the servant called out, "tell them dinner is ready!"

The path led through a garden, making for an enjoyable trek to the dojo. She mused that she would not mind just sitting in the garden for a few hours since it was so peaceful, but she walked on making it all the way to the dojo with out meeting Mori. So naturally, she walked up to the dojo's open door to find Mori and who she assumed to be his younger brother having a kendo match while their father watched.

A few seconds later their weapons clashed, sending the younger boy's shinai flying through the door, Lumiere quickly sidestepping it, landing on the ground a few feet behind her. The two boys stared at her for a moment, where their father just gazed curiously, before Mori greeted her with his usual lack of emotion, "Lumiere."

His little brother, who had just realized that she was Mori's friend and not a random trespasser flushed slightly and hurried over to her with a bow, "I'm so sorry sempia! You're not hurt are you?"

Lumiere gave a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of her neck, as usual, "no, no, it didn't hit me. No harm done." She gave the boy a curious look before her gaze turned to their father, "Ah! One of your servants asked me to let you know that dinner was ready."

The man nodded, "Takashi, Satoshi go change." After watching his sons hurry off, he walked over to Lumiere and asked, "so you're one of Takashi's friends?"

"Yes," she gave a polite bow and introduced herself, "my name is Lumiere LaVie. Mo…Takashi is one of my classmates." He gave her a warm smile and a nod. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Lumiere retrieved the bamboo sword that had flown past her and handed it to him. He then thanked her and walked away to put it up as Mori came back in the room in his street clothes, Satoshi following close behind.

The three teens then started on their way back to the house, one boy on either side of Lumiere. "My name is Satoshi, I'm Taka-bro's younger brother," the junior high student on her right chided with a grin that could rival Hunny's.

She smiled back at him replying, "I'm Lumiere." The two brothers seamed to balance each other out. Satoshi was a normal, talkative kid, while Mori was excessively quiet and antisocial.

When they came within sight of the house Satoshi exclaimed, "I'll show you around Lumi-sempia." She gave a surprised yelp when he grabbed her wrist and drug her off towards the house, stumbling all they while since she struggled to keep up with him.

Mori fell back to walk with his father, watching his energetic little brother pull his helpless classmate behind him like a rag doll. "She doesn't know what she's gotten herself into," chuckled the older man to his first born.

After a _very_ speedy tour of the Morinozuka home, Satoshi finally pulled Lumiere into the dinning room, where the rest of his family were already seated and waiting. "Satoshi, you really shouldn't bother Takashi's friends," the boys' mother called to him as they took their seats.

"Oh, no, it's okay," Lumiere said raising her hands in defense of the younger boy, "I really don't mind."

Their father introduced her to his wife, "this is Takashi's classmate, Lumiere LaVie." The blond nodded when he spoke her name but said nothing.

Soon after they sat down, servants came and set their dishes in front of them and they began eating. "So what made you want to transfer schools so late in the year?" Mr. Morinozuka asked Lumiere in an attempt to make conversation.

She quickly swallowed the food in her mouth and explained, "my father moved the headquarters of his company here from America, so naturally my brother and I came along with him. I was actually tutored privately in the States, but I decided I wanted to go to an actual school when we moved here."

"Ah, what does your father's business deal with?" he asked in return.

"Electronics," she said simply before the table fell back into silence. Thankfully, Satoshi broke the silence again chatting enthusiastically about his school activities, allowing Lumiere to relax a little. She felt like she was imposing on their family time even though they had welcomed her.

After they had finished eating Mori ushered Lumiere away from the table, shooing his brother off in the process, leading the way to his room so they could study. "I'm sorry if I intruded," Lumiere said, still a bit self-conscious as they pulled out their books and notes.

"You didn't, don't worry about it," he said situating himself on the floor across from her, "okay, lets start with chapter twenty."

Mori was a surprisingly good study partner. He actually spoke in complete sentences and seamed to thoroughly enjoy going over their History notes. They worked for a good two hours before Lumiere realized how late it was, "oh wow, it's gotten late. I better get going. Thank you so much for helping me."

Reverting back to his silent demeanor, Mori gave a simple "Aa," helping her gather her things before showing her the way out.

"I'll see you at school Mori-san," she said cheerfully with a wave, to which her returned his own small smile and wave. It was the first time she had addressed him with his nickname rather than his full family name.


End file.
